Company fined £2m after worker died from burns

A court heard the decision to use a firehose to shoot 7,500 litres of cold water into the chamber had been "catastrophic."

A company has been fined more than £2m over health and safety failings which led to a worker dying from serious burns in Stirlingshire.

George Laird sustained fatal injuries at Norboard Europe Ltd's chipboard factory in Cowie in 2016 and died later in hospital.

A court heard the burns, caused by lava-like debris, were so severe Mr Laird had no chance of recovery.

A sheriff said he died because there were no adequate safeguards in place.

Imposing the £2,150,000 fine after a jury found the company guilty of both charges it faced, Sheriff William Wood said it bore a "high level of culpability" for its failings.

He said a lack of safety protocols meant employees had to take it upon themselves to devise methods of clearing hot ash from the base of a combustion chamber.

Tragic death

Sheriff Wood said the decision to use a fire hose to shoot 7,500 litres of cold water into a pile of hot ash in the chamber had been "catastrophic" and directly led to Mr Laird's death.

The effect was like an explosion, with Mr Laird being dowsed in scalding hot water, steam and hot ash. He sustained full-thickness burns which covered 90% of his body and died in hospital the next day.

The company, which is now part of international lumber processing group West Fraser, was found guilty by a jury at Perth Sheriff Court of two charges relating to the tragedy.

The jury found that the company had failed to ensure the health and safety of its workers for more than a year prior to the fatal explosion on 13 July 2006.

Norbord failed to ensure a safe system of work for employees who were inspecting or removing hot ash from the area below the combustion chamber.

The company was found guilty of allowing its staff to devise their own methods of working to remove hot ash from the gas duct in the particle board line drier system.

Workers were found to be at risk of injury or death between 1 October 2014 and 13 July 2016 - when staff decided use the high-pressure fire hose.

'Act of folly'

Counsel for the company, Mark Stewart QC, said the firm accepted it had not carried out a risk assessment but argued it could not be held responsible for the decision to fire cold water into hot ash.

He said: "It wasn't expected by anyone. The system was derailed by two employees. They did something wrong and one can't shy away from that.

"The company accepts that because of the failure of these two men there was no risk assessment.

"The failure that caused the death of Mr Laird was what they did next.

"The injection of cold water was unforeseeable and an act of folly of such magnitude that no-one could ever foresee these skilled men doing such a thing."